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Re: (IAAC) Revised NGC / IC
Doug Stewart writes:
>
> http://www.ngcic.org/
>
>This project is immense in its scale, and is quite a service to amateurs, in
>particular... The project site is well worth exploring - I hope that their
>efforts aren't overlapping too much with those of IAAC, however!
I replied to Doug privately on this one, before I noticed his post on SNES.
As I wrote to Doug, I think the NGC/IC Project actually *complements* efforts
like "IAAC" very well! The NGC/IC is really about amateurs doing research:
serious, useful research, to verify catalog data (more so than astrophysical
quantities like magnitude), about the very objects we all enjoy observing...
The IAAC on the other hand, is about HOW to visually observe these objects!
We are here to share with each other (and the Internet world), our observing
triumphs, as well as our observing "ain't nos" - and just as importantly, to
share with one another, *how we arrived at* those triumphs and defeats. What
instrumentation, power or filter did we find most useful to see a tiny, faint
planetary nebula? What visual observing technique finally brought that faint
spiral arm into view? Or what technique or object have we always wanted to
*try* in our observing, but have never had anyone's guidance to learn how?
So no, if anything, I would say the folks of NGC/IC should consider the IAAC
archive as a source for confirming observations, if they may find them useful;
just as observers sharing their logs on the IAAC, will always consider NGC/IC
an important source for ever more accurate data on objects in those catalogs!
BTW, Hartmut Frommert's wonderful Messier Database is also an excellent and
much-used complement to the IAAC, as are the fine Web sites and email groups
run by Eric Honeycutt, Jens Bohle, Auke Slotegraaf, Doug Snyder, Jim Shields,
Greg Crinklaw, Mikkel Steine, Paul Markov, the Webb Society and many others!
You can find out more information about all of these sites, not to mention a
link to the Web site of the NGC/IC Project, at our IAAC "links" page:
http://www.visualdeepsky.org/links.html
Clear skies everyone!
Lew Gramer
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